Here are my comments and feelings about this week's Wathmania GP.
1. First of all - the circuit itself.
It was similar to last week's track in the way that it didn't look that good on the picture, but was very nice to drive, certainly faster than Cvoprose, with mostly high-speed turns. It was great to drive, even though I never properly learned the first curve - always felt that I had to lift the gas a bit in fear of running wide. All in all - wonderful track
2. Qualification
I intended to drive all 8 laps but after realising my 7th lap was better than I expected, I stopped. This is when I left the PC for 3-4 minutes, as I said I had to do something. Did that, came back and was surprised to find myself in 3rd position. Although I wanted to, I didn't have enough time to compare the fuel levels, my mind only registered Tijny's, which was about 50% (12% more than I had).
3.Race
So I thought, what the heck, I'll drive as best as I can and see where I end up. Also told myself not to f*** up anyone else's race and then it was time for start.
First laps were quite good, I managed to get hold of 2nd position right after dede. In the 1st half of the 1st stint I was jumping around between positions 2-4(5?), but was still slowly falling behind. I didn't have any major driving errors, no off-track excursions, only some odd line variations in a couple of turns, which allowed the chasers to get closer (and, of course, my carefulness, which never allows me to take risks). I never expected to beat the likes of Tijny, Mike Nike, Janne, dede etc, even though I was quite fast for myself in the first stint (or so I thought). The less fuel I had, the more difficult it became for me to handle the car, my braking points varied a lot and I was 6th or 7th or somewhere around that.
Then I started to pay attention to how many laps I'd driven, the amount of fuel and when I needed to take the pitstop. Before the race, I had written it down for myself: whenever the game shows 14/39 [i.e when I'm on the 15th lap] I need to go to the pits. 13/39.. 14/39.. and in the beginning of that lap I told myself: 'Ok, pits now..' Then I raced on, 'twas the final curve and I don't know what the heck happened but I kept driving, onto the straight and before the first turn realized that I'd messed up big time. My fingers wanted to turn to the pits so badly, but I knew backwards driving wasn't allowed and feared getting a ban from the whole cup. I went for another lap, having about 2-3% of fuel left. Soon it was 0% and for a couple of corners I was driving with only the scent of the fuel in the tank. It ran out in the second to last corner and I went for the pit entry. I don't know who it was who came after me, but I'm sorry for being slow there - I couldn't do anything. I hope you got past me in that narrow road quickly and it didn't compromise your race. No hard feelings, please
I pitted, got myself 65% of fuel (5% more than I intended at first, because God knows what could've happened..) and resumed my race. Soon dede lapped me, then Tijny and Janne (?). I hope everyone got past nicely. I raced as hard as I could, hoping for at least a repetition of last week's 8th place and was a bit worried about how much the extra lap at the end of the first stint really had cost me. The game showed P11 for me.. and I felt disappointed. I kept on going and finally caught a blue car with a red stripe who, I thought, was Shyguy. Catching and overtaking him was one of the few good moments in this race. I overtook some other cars as well but they were all a lap behind, so in the end it was 10th place for me, which, bearing my starting position in mind, is quite a bad result, actually. Disappointed, but what the heck, own fault, I guess.